Ty's Wreck

OUCH!!!

3/2/05

On Wednesday, March 2, Ty called me after
he got home from school at around 4 pm and asked if he could try my clipless
pedals. He'd been on a couple mountain bike rides with me and had so
much fun, he wanted to start riding in the afternoons to get legged up so he
could hang a bit better with the tougher riders. I told him it was all
right for him to try them out but to be careful. I told him that if he
went anywhere aside from the yard, he needed to take his sister with him and
they both had to carry their phones. At 4:30, my cell rang with a call
from Kaleigh. It was my Mom who informed me that Ty had fallen and
she'd do a quick assessment then call me back. She called me back and
told me she thought Ty's arm was broken and asked if I wanted her to call an
ambulance. Um...people...we are farm folk. When I was a kid, you
could have your arm ripped off and laying beside you on the ground and my
folks would tell you to pick your arm up and dust yourself off with it.
Needless to say, when my Mom asks you if you think she should call an
ambulance, you'd better get with it, somebody's hurt. At this point,
I'm getting in my truck to drive out to the ranch to pick Tyler up and get
him to the doctor. I'm still thinking Urgent Care and give them a call
to ask them what they'll do if the arm is broken. They explain that
they'll x-ray and if it's broken, they'll send him over to the ER to have it
cast. I decide to take him directly to the ER and cut out the middle
man. Mom manages to do a pretty good job of immobilizing the arm,
loading Ty and Kay up in her truck and driving him to the Erle Road over
crossing to meet me. I'm still thinking Ty will get out of her truck,
get into mine and we'll head to town. Instead, she gets out of her
truck, moves the bike from the back of her truck to mine and hands me her
keys. I look at her all puzzled and she says, "he ain't moving...get
going". I hopped in the drivers seat and looked over at Ty. I'm
glad he wasn't reading my face when I looked at him. He had what
appeared to be two elbows on one arm. He had a bend where the elbow
should be and another one at about the same angle just above that. I
could tell Kaleigh had been crying for some time. Her eyes were bright
red and she looked scared to death. My heart was in my throat and I
was trying to lift the pickup off the ground to keep it from bouncing on the
bumps. For as frightened and worried as Kaleigh and I were
though....people in excruciating pain can be amusing. Tyler would say
things like "Kaleigh...I love you...but I hate you, too cause yer a turd".
The thing that got Kay and I snickering though was when a Mr. Rooter van
passed us just as we came into Marysville and Tyler yells out "Mr. Rooter?!
I hate Mr. Rooter!! He's MEAN!!" We pulled up to the walk in
entrance to the ER and I told Ty I'd be right back. I walked inside
where I'm sure they were admitting some chick with a cold and asked the
woman behind the counter if someone could help me. I told her my son
was in the pickup just outside with an obviously fractured arm and I needed
some help. She looked at me over the top of her glasses and in the
most condescending voice I've ever heard said, "Ma'am, you are going to have
to wait your turn". Uh oh...WRONG THING TO SAY LADY!! I said
"Ok, then I'll fucking get him myself!!" Yup, I said that in front of
people...in public. I did. I took a wheelchair out to the truck
then realized there was no way Ty could sit in it. It would have moved
the fracture. I had to make him walk it. He stood in the waiting
area, tears rolling down his face. The big ole kid reduced me to the
overprotective mother I was when he was a baby. I stood in that same
obnoxious lady's window glaring at her over the top of her other customers.
She finally found someone to help me out and when the nurse rounded the
corner and saw Ty, they started to scramble. He had a big, fat dose of
morphine in him within 5 minutes. It took them another hour and a half
(which beats their normal 3 hour time frame) to get x-rays and contact the
on call orthopedist. Luck was on our side a little bit in that area
because Dr. Randy Vogel, the greatest ortho doc on the planet, happened to
be on call. He was there 15 minutes after they paged him and 15
minutes after that, we were headed to surgery. As it turns out, Ty had
knocked the distal end of the humerus off. It was a compound fracture
and what I had mistaken for road rash on his elbow was actually a tear where
the bone had poked through. The jagged end of the bone had done some
damage to the underside of his bicep muscle as well. Dr. Vogel had to
break the end of the ulna off and peel the tricep back to get to the humerus to put the plates in. All in all, Ty now has two metal
plates, 11 screws and a chunk of wire in his left elbow. Doc fixed him
up just like we repair everything else on the ranch, duct tape and baling
wire. The only thing
missing is a couple chunks of duct tape. Now it's Wednesday and I'm
FINALLY back to work. Thank you family and friends for keeping me
together through this thing. Sena, Ed and I want to thank you for
dinner last Thursday night and for being the solid ground I keep running
back to touch when things get all out of whack (oh yeah...and for wine).
Thank you Shorty for the tears of compassion and your love and concern.
Thanks Chelle for offering to sit with my big baby when you are trying to
take care of your little one. Mom...as always....thanks for
EVERYTHING!! You are just always there...when a kid needs a ride to
meet his mom to go to the hospital...when someone needs dinner or....when I
can't hold it in anymore and need a place to leave some tears (sorry bout
your soaked shirt).